The Driver

First day of school ...

And this is how we all feel at the end of the day!

4 kids x 2 schools x 4 activities x 2 times a week + Washington traffic = madness.

For the first time in our lives, our kids are split between two different schools (Tabitha, middle; Ben and Gracie, elementary), and all four are participating in extracurricular activities. Gracie and Judah are taking ballet. Ben and Tabitha are playing soccer. None are in the same class or on the same team.

The locations of these schools and activities are all within a five-mile radius of our house. That might make things quick and convenient in Oklahoma. But in one of the top-ten U.S. cities for worst traffic, even four miles can be a headache.

Afternoon pickup is a challenge enough in itself. Tabitha gets out of her middle school, which is near the National Archives and the Portrait Gallery, at four. I never have any trouble getting there, thankfully; the traffic is bad only in the other direction. The problem is, after I pick her up, I have to go in the other direction, and I have a thirty-minute window between when her school gets out (and 5-10 minutes of that is her stopping by her locker to get her bag and getting downstairs and out the door and finding me in the pickup line) and the deadline for picking up Ben and Gracie from their school, which is back near our house (they get out at 4:15 and pickup is until 4:30). Rarely is there gridlock, but often I'm moving 5-10 mph most of the way. And often I arrive at their school and head straight to the office, where they take the poor kids whose parents don't make the pickup window.

At this point, most days, the race is just beginning. Gracie has ballet two times a week; Judah has it once. We rush from the elementary school to the campus of the ballet school, the girls sometimes changing into their leotards in the car, and when we arrive I hop out as fast as I can to arrange their hair in a bun as required by the school and send them running in to class, hoping they make it in time.

Judah at the ballet studio

(Oh, and we've always prohibited eating in the car. Now the car has become the prime snacking spot. Sigh.)

Thursdays are the craziest. Tabitha has soccer practice right after school, so the plan is to pick up Ben and Gracie, take Gracie to ballet, pick up Tabitha from soccer practice, take Ben home so Harvey can take him to soccer practice, and finally go back to the ballet school to pick up Gracie. 

Ben playing soccer, Harvey coaching

But last Thursday there was a hiccup. On my way to pick up the younger kids, Tabitha called to say soccer practice was canceled. I told her to wait and I would be there as soon as I could. We made it to her school and got her, but then the challenge was to make it to Gracie's ballet class in about thirty minutes. She changed in the car, and we crawled through heavy traffic all the way to the ballet school. I stopped at the drop-off area to get out and fix her bun. She was already late. As she began to run inside, I ran after her, realizing I needed to give her something, and my ankle turned on the sidewalk. I hugged Gracie and limped back to the car and began to cry--mostly because of the ankle pain but partly because the stress of playing taxi driver in DC traffic had gotten to me.

I wish I could say I've gotten used to the whole afternoon/evening routine over the past few weeks, but it doesn't seem to get any easier or less stressful. I realize this is something in my control, and I'm not required to chauffeur my kids around. If it becomes too much, I could just stop. I could bring them straight home in the evenings and enjoy time snacking with them, doing homework, playing, and making dinner. Maybe that's better in the long run. But I want them to have opportunities to discover and develop their gifts and talents. I want them to participate in group activities where they can grow physically and socially. I want them to meet new friends and have an influence in the community. Those things just happen to be more challenging when you have four kids and you live in a place like Washington. We'll see how things go, keep praying about them, and figure out what the best thing for our kids and our family is at this time and place in our lives. Until then, the Sparks Taxi Service is up and running; I just hope I don't do too much damage on those DC roads.